By Josh Rosenblatt 

In this competitive job market, hungry law students are looking to distinguish themselves from their classmates.  I did this by getting a joint JD/MBA.   

It has to rank as one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.  The upside: learning to “think like a business person,” valuable insight into how to network effectively, and an expanded group of contacts, to name a few.  The downside:  it is expensive and time consuming.  Also, some classes are (completely) irrelevant for a young lawyer.

So, if you are a current law student who wants to differentiate yourself by picking up some MBA skills but don’t want to spend the time and money on the degree itself, here are my suggestions for the top three classes you should audit.

Accounting

To paraphrase an accounting professor:  “If you can’t read a balance sheet, you might as well not be able to read.”  Accounting can turn off a lot of law students, especially those who think that numbers are big scary beasts to be avoided at all times.  However, the professor’s advice is spot on.  A corporate attorney needs to feel comfortable reading, analyzing, and understanding financial statements.

Corporate Valuation

I struggle with this class.  The math is over my head and the group work takes forever.  Regardless, if you are going to be a “deal lawyer,” then it is good to know how the finances of a deal work.  Corporate Valuation will teach you that ...whether you like it or not. 

Negotiations

Finally, a “soft skills” class!  This class may overlap with a negotiations class taught at your law school, so you may want to check the syllabus first.  However, it has been my experience that classes with the same name at both schools are often completely different, and thus even more worth taking.  Business students negotiate differently than law students, or so I am told.  The difference: taking vs. creating value.  (I’ll let the reader decide who does which).  Take this class to ensure that you can do both. 

A Bonus Class: Spreadsheets

The joke told during class one day was:  Q: “What’s the difference between a lawyer and a business-person?”  A: “When making a list, business-people use Excel.  Lawyers use Word.”  (Laughter ensues, seriously).  You think you know Excel?  It turns out you do not.  You should though; it is a freakishly powerful program that can help almost anyone do almost anything.   

This is an excellent post from the Legal Writing Professor based on a article in The Complete Lawyer . . .

Even more reason for students to take their legal writing classes seriously

The Complete Lawyer has an article called Today's Economic Pressures Work Against Natural Mentoring in which the author notes that newly minted law graduates are often surprised to find what self-starters they must be in their first jobs; that they are expected to consistently produce good quality work with little or no supervision. 

Associates may receive a variety of work assignments from different partners, each of whom has no idea what other projects the associate is working on or for whom. When the project is done, the associate may or may not receive feedback on his work. In many cases, no single partner is accountable for a particular associate’s success and development. In this environment, an associate can get lost in the shuffle.

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